Russell B. Goodman is Regents Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. He is the author of American Philosophy and the Romantic Tradition (Cambridge, 1990); Wittgenstein and William James (Cambridge, 2002); and American Philosophy before Pragmatism (Oxford, 2015).

• Introduction; 1. Emerson's philosophical style; 2. Varieties of skepticism in Emerson's thought; 3. Emerson and skepticism: a reading of 'Friendship'; 4. Paths of coherence through Emerson's philosophy: the case of 'nominalist and realist'; 5. Emerson, Montaigne, skepticism; 6. Reading 'Manners'; 7. Emerson's 'experience' and Plato's republic; 8. On 'The Poet'; 9. Emerson's natures; 10. Emerson and Hinduism; Afterword; Bibliography.

'Whether offering revisionary readings of Emerson in relation to Montaigne's contrarian skepticism, William James's varieties of religious experience, and Cavell's epistemology of moods, or redefining our understandings of his encounters with Plato, Kant, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein, this book brilliantly choreographs the movements of contrariety in Emerson's living thought, and conjures a striking 'mode of illumination' that will light the way for both seasoned Emerson scholars and those encountering him for the first time.' Michael Jonik, University of Sussex